Families spend Christmas Day on downtown ice rink

After the gifts were opened and the holiday hams eaten, some Spartanburg residents and their out-of-town visitors found themselves downtown with something new to do on Christmas Day.

By Jenny Arnoldjennifer.arnold@shj.com

After the gifts were opened and the holiday hams eaten, some Spartanburg residents and their out-of-town visitors found themselves downtown with something new to do on Christmas Day.The city’s temporary ice skating rink in Morgan Square was open from 4-9 p.m., giving families the opportunity to ice skate here on Christmas for the first time.Some residents glided gracefully across the ice, while others stood on the sidelines to watch the skating, keeping warm in Tuesday’s damp chill with coffees or hot chocolates served rink-side.It took a caravan of cars to get the Hartle/Steele/Chawkin families to the rink. Brothers Scott and David Hartle of Los Angeles visited their mother, Evelyn, for Christmas and couldn’t wait to get onto the ice.“We heard about it before we even came,” Scott said. “News broke in L.A. early on,” David added with a smile.Scott Hartle said when he visits family in Spartanburg, he enjoys coming downtown, so having the rink only added to his enjoyment of a visit home.“It feels more authentically Christmas downtown than it does in the neighborhoods,” said Scott’s wife, Deb, of the wintery activity.Scott and David Hartle’s sister, Pamela Chawkin, of Atlanta, brought her tiny chihuahua, Winkie, stowed away in her coat, to the rink. Chawkin didn’t skate, but watched her family members circle the rink with Evelyn Hartle and her sister, Brenda Steele.“I didn’t even know they could skate,” Evelyn Hartle said with a smile. “And they just turned on the lights. It makes it so festive. I think this is wonderful for Spartanburg. It’s so wonderful for (the family) to have something different to do.”Chris McDonnell, formerly of the Spartanburg area, came home to visit relatives in Inman from Fort Worth, Texas, with his daughter, Camille, 13. They originally planned to see the movie version of “Les Miserables” on its opening day, but the show was sold out by the time they got to the theater.“That was the first thing that popped out of our mouth — let’s go skating,” Chris McDonnell said. “We were here at Thanksgiving, and we didn’t get to go then, but I thought it was a great idea. And for 10 bucks, it’s a pretty good deal. You could go get something to eat, and then come back to the rink and skate.”Camille dressed for the weather in gray fleece and sequined ear muffs that she received for Christmas, but she was kind of bummed that she didn’t get to see “Les Miserables” on Tuesday. She did enjoy her skating experience, though. “You kind of glide,” she said with a grin. “And I fell so I could practice getting back up.”Outdoor ice skating is not something Camille would get to do in Texas.“It’s too hot,” she said.Elizabeth Martin, a rink attendant known as a skate guard, said she felt people were excited about being able to skate on Christmas Day.“A lot of people just go to the movies,” she said. “But this gives them something else to do, and it gives the families something fun to do.”Overall response to the rink since it opened in mid-November has been positive, Martin said.“We’ve had a lot of people, thousands of people, and everyone wants it to stay open longer than the 6th,” she said.The rink closes Jan. 6. A New Year’s Eve bash is being planned for the rink, with food vendors and large screens to show a football game and a movie.For more about operating hours or remaining special events at the rink, visit www.cityofspartanburg.org/events.